If you’ve watched Stranger Things with the kids huddled together, rolling dice and making up fantasy storylines involving terrifying monsters, mages, heroes, and fire breathing dragons – you know what Dungeons and Dragons (DnD) is. “It is the middle point between board games and video games. Like board games, people sit around a table in person, or on a video call and talk to each other, and like a video game, there is a central story,” explains Ashwin Solanki, the community manager of Smokebomb Studios, adding, “You can be a hero [or another character] and tell stories like The Lord of the Rings or just goof around and come up with your own.”
Smokebomb Studios, a community of board game enthusiasts, is set to host the second edition of their DnD convention ‘Living Chronicles’ this weekend. “There will be nine tables playing simultaneously, designed so that all the tables’ actions are interconnected. This time, we’ve included really cool 3D printed maps on each table,” says Solanki, adding that there will be stalls by creators in the DnD community selling RPG merchandise.
Bengaluru has a sizable DnD community, which, according to Solanki, grew exponentially in the pandemic and mainly interacts online. He says, “A lot of us started playing DnD during the pandemic and found people from Bengaluru who were already playing it. That’s why our first convention was in Bengaluru; the city has welcomed us with open arms.”
For enthusiasts as well as laypeople who are simply curious to know what the game is all about, this is a great opportunity to connect in real life; as Solanki explains, “It’s a high energy environment. People have a shared experience to talk about, make connections, and form groups.” He adds, “I’ve seen people introduce their friends to the game here. They came as spectators on the first day, and the next, they were players. It’s much better than trying to convince someone to spend hours online with strangers.”
(‘Living Chronicles’ will take place on May 17 and 18 from 2pm to 8pm at The Underline Centre, Domlur. For more information, visit @smokebomb.studios on Instagram)